First delivery of German heavy weaponry arrives

Al Jazeera :
Ukraine said Tuesday in Kyiv it had “finally” deployed advanced German artillery system, in the latest delivery of the long-range, precision weapons that it has been calling for.
“Panzerhaubitze 2000 are finally part of 155 mm howitzer arsenal of the Ukrainian artillery,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on social media, thanking his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht.
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Germany said last month it would send seven self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, ramping up deliveries of heavy weapons to help Kyiv battle Russia’s invasion.
The German army has about 100 howitzer 2000s in its stocks, but only 40 are combat ready.
The United States, France and other Ukraine allies have vowed further supplies of heavy weapons for Kyiv, and deliveries from Washington are due in Ukraine this month.
The West has sent weapons into Ukraine to help it fight the Kremlin forces, but Kyiv complains it has only received a fraction of what it needs and is clamoring for heavier weaponry.
The artillery update comes as the British Military Intelligence said that Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles to engage Russian forces.
“The target of the attack was almost certainly the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island in the north-western Black Sea,” the defence ministry said in its daily Twitter update.
The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists.
A worker is seen loading a destroyed Russian tank onto a vehicle near Kyiv
Meanwhile, Ukraine has acknowledged difficulties in fighting in its east as Russian forces captured territory and intensified pressure on two cities. This comes ahead of an EU summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc.
The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was “extremely difficult” along the front line as of yesterday evening and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
Sergei Gaidai said Russia was heavily shelling the eastern industrial city of Lysychansk.
“Fighting in the Sievierodonetsk industrial zone and catastrophic destruction in Lysychansk,” he said in a statement on social media, adding that Lysychansk had suffered from heavy Russian strikes over the previous day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had predicted Russia would step up attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
In an address to the nation yesterday evening, he was defiant, while also referring to “difficult” fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk.
“We are defending Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, this whole area, the most difficult one. We have the most difficult fighting there,” he said. “But we have our strong guys and girls there.”